Lumberjacks swing into Fort Collins

Axes will be flying, chain saws humming and cameras rolling. No, Fort Collins isn't the setting for the latest B-grade horror flick. CSU's logging sports team is hosting the 71st annual conclave for schools in the Association of Western Forest Clubs this week at its new competition facility on Vine Drive, just west of Overland Trail. The annual conclave includes the Stihl Timbersports Western Collegiate Challenge, which is being filmed by ESPNU, a sports television network devoted to college sports, to be broadcast later this year. And they all have different events they prefer. CSU's specialty, Hall said, tends to be the chopping events, but team members will compete this week in all 17 disciplines, ranging from burling (trying to roll an opponent off a floating log by spinning it rapidly with your feet), to ax throwing, to pole climbing, to obstacle courses, to tree identification, to traverse (a form of orienteering), to a number of different chopping and sawing events involving axes, buck saws, tandem saws and identically tuned chain saws. Four of the events -- single buck, stock saw, standing block chop and underhand chop -- make up the Stihl Collegiate Challenge, and the competitor with the top score after those events will receive a $1,000 scholarship and move on to represent the region in the Stihl Timbersports Collegiate Championship in August at the Oregon State Fair in Salem, Ore...read more